Earned
by dobegirl15
Summary: Cory and Topanga are actually sick of staying home...they decide it's time they do something fun. Just come cute Corpanga cause I miss them. One shot.
**So apparently the last one shot I did wasn't enough…cause here we are. Lol I love Corpanga too much. But I loved writing this story so much, and I hope you enjoy it!**

Cory and Topanga sat on the couch on a Friday night, looking at a blank television screen. Topanga's arms were wrapped around Cory's waist as she leaned her head on his chest, and his arm was around her shoulders. She simply sat in content silence, her mind wandering to thoughts about her day, the plans for tomorrow, and the unpaid bills on the counter.

Topanga felt Cory sigh and she looked up at him.

"What?" she asked.

He shook his head.

"No, what is it?" she asked, starting to sit up.

He looked at her for a second. "I just don't want to sit here anymore."

She crinkled her eyes. "Fine. I guess you don't have to sit with me," she said, getting irritated.

"No, that's not what I mean," he said, putting his hand up. "I mean us. All we do is sit here when we come home. Don't you want to do something?"

"I don't know. What do you mean?"

"I mean we don't even have a TV to watch 'cause it's broken and we can't afford to get it fixed. We just sit here in silence."

"I thought you liked just staying home," she said.

"Well, I do, but we have to do something sometimes. We can't just sit in silence. I like sitting at home when we have something to do together. But we have nothing to do here," he said.

"Wow, this is weird," Topanga said. "I'm usually the one saying we need to do something, and you're saying we should stay home, and now it's reversed."

"I know," he said, making a face. "I don't like it."

"This must be pretty bad if _you're_ even saying something, huh?"

"I think so."

"Well, fine, what do you want to do? We can't exactly go out and go shopping. We don't really have the money to do anything," she said, pointing to the counter full of bills.

"Can't we just this once spend money?"

"Not money that we don't have," she said.

"We haven't spent money on ourselves in a very long time, Topanga, and I think we can sacrifice a few dollars to actually have fun for once."

"Cory, where would we sacrifice a few dollars? Our budget is basically just rent and food."

"I don't know, but I just can't handle living like this, where we're always saving every penny and we can never do anything for fun."

She sighed. "Honey, I know. But you have to look to the future. When we're all done with college, it'll be great. We won't have to worry about money anymore. But right now, we need to save, because every cent that we save gets us closer to our degrees."

"Topanga, we have put in _so_ much. And it's the weekend, and we just got home, and it's already boring. We both have this weekend off, which never happens, so let's do something with it! Come on!"

She looked at his hopeful face and gave him a sympathetic smile. "You are right. We do put in a lot."

He nodded.

Finally she sighed and said, "Okay. Let's do something fun."

Cory grinned and he jumped up, pulling her to stand. He lifted her up and twirled her around the small living room. She giggled, loving seeing him so happy.

He set her down and she saw that he was still grinning.

"So what do you want to do?" she asked, a smile still on her face.

"Oh, who cares!" he exclaimed. "We're doing something fun!" he yelled, pumping his fists in the air.

She laughed and said, "Yeah, but what would that be?"

"Why don't you pick something and I'll pick something?" he suggested.

"How about we go to dinner?" she offered.

"Yes! I would love to eat food that we don't have to cook!"

"We can't go too expensive, though Cory. We still need to be saving as much money as we can. Let's go to a nice, but not too nice, restaurant."

"Okay. So you pick the restaurant and I'll pick the activity," Cory said excitedly.

"Okay. What do you want to do?"

He thought for a moment. Then a slight smile came on his face and he looked at Topanga.

"How about we go to the park?"

"The park?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. "I'm saying we can go out and do something fun and you want to go to the _park_?"

"Yeah. Central Park. What do you say?"

She looked at him, trying to smile at the idea. "If that's what you really want to do, honey."

He grinned and nodded. "Yes! I want to go to Central Park!"

"Alright, then. Dinner and Central Park it is," Topanga said.

"Okay. We're going tonight, right?"

"Sure, let's go tonight."

"Good," he said. "Let's go get ready!" He turned around and ran to their room.

Topanga simply watched him with a wondering smile on her face and shook her head. She followed after him to their room.

"Hey, I have an idea," he said when she got there.

"What?"

"Let's surprise each other!"

"What do you mean?"

"Let's get ready in different rooms and dress up and surprise each other!"

She chuckled. "Okay. But Cory, remember, we can't go anywhere fancy."

"I know," he said with a grin. "But why don't we dress up like we're going somewhere fancy anyway. It'll be fun!"

"Don't you think people will look at us like we're crazy?" she asked.

He waved the idea away. "Who cares? We don't know anyone here yet anyways."

She shrugged. "That's true. Alright, let's dress up!" she said, pumping her fist in the air to show her excitement, mimicking Cory.

Cory went to their closet and got his suit out.

"Cory, I thought we were going to surprise each other," Topanga said, watching him, confused.

"We are. But you know this is the only suit I own so…there's not going to be a surprise there," he said with a shrug.

She laughed and said, "Fine. But you can't come in here, okay? And eventually I'm going to have to do my hair and makeup in the bathroom."

"Okay!" he said, walking out the bedroom door.

"I'll probably need an hour!" she yelled after him.

"Take your time, dahling," he replied.

Topanga grinned and closed the door. This was going to be a fun night.

xxxXXXxxx

"Topanga, are you ready?" Cory yelled from the living room.

"Almost!" she yelled back. She closed the clasp on the back of her earring and stepped back from the mirror. She flipped her curls in her hair around a few more times to give them some body.

"Okay!" she called. "I'm going to come out now! Are you ready?"

"Yep!"

She opened the door and turned off the light and walked into the hallway toward the living room. She saw Cory facing the other way and she smiled.

Cory heard the click of her heels as she walked across the floor and smiled, excited to see his wife.

Topanga stopped and said, "Okay, turn around."

He turned around and he felt his mouth fall open as he saw his beautiful wife.

She saw him staring at her and felt her cheeks get warm.

"You look amazing," he said in awe.

"Thank you," she said, smiling and feeling somewhat embarrassed. "You look so handsome," she said, walking toward him.

He walked over to her and noticed her face becoming red.

"Why are you blushing?" he asked, chuckling, slipping his arms around her waist.

She shook her head and wrapped her arms around him. "I guess I just haven't felt pretty in a while."

He crinkled his eyes and shook his head. "You are _always_ beautiful, Topanga," he said quietly.

She smiled and leaned up to kiss him.

"So where are we going for dinner?" she asked.

"I took care of it. Don't worry."

He took his hands from around her waist and held his arm out. She took it and they walked out the door and locked it behind them.

They walked down the hallway and down the stairs together. They got to the doors of the apartment building and Cory held the door for her.

"Thank you, sir," she grinned, speaking with a fancy British accent and curtsying.

"Of course, madam," he replied in the same accent. He bowed and then she giggled and walked through the door.

When they walked out, there was a horse-drawn carriage parked there.

"Oh, that's beautiful," Topanga said, pointing at it, starting to walk past it.

Cory grinned and stopped next to it.

She looked at him, confused. "Cory, you didn't rent a carriage, did you? Please tell me you didn't. Those are _so_ expensive."

"Well, I didn't rent it," Cory said.

"Then what's going on?" she asked.

"I may have exaggerated when I said that I don't know anyone. Topanga, meet George Tomlinson," he said, pointing to the man driving the carriage.

"Hi," she said, waving.

He tipped his hat at her. "Nice to meet you."

"George has his own horses and he gives carriage rides to people. He said he would give us a ride for free."

Her eyes grew wide. "Mr. Tomlinson, that's very nice of you, but we can't possibly accept-"

"Please," he interrupted. "Let it be my gift to you, Mrs. Matthews. Cory, here, is always such a good person to talk to, and I 'ppreciate him takin' the time outta his lunch to come see me and my horses. This is my way of repaying you. Please."

She looked over at Cory adoringly and he smiled back.

"Are you sure, Mr. Tomlinson? We'd hate to take advantage," Topanga said.

"'Course," he replied. "'Sides, I told Cory I'd give him a ride a while back, and he didn't take it. Says he wanted a' save it for somethin' special. I see you're his somethin' special."

Topanga looked over at Cory, feeling the hint of tears come to her eyes. She pushed them away.

He held out his hand and said, "Shall we?"

She took his hand and climbed into the carriage, holding her dress so she didn't trip.

He followed after her and they sat down on a cushioned seat.

George turned around and said, "Just keep your arms in and stay sittin' and everything'll be great. Ready?"

They nodded.

George turned back around and seemed to disappear as his seat was lower down than theirs. It felt like they were the only two in the carriage.

Topanga turned to look at Cory.

"This is so beautiful, Cory. I can't believe you got us a carriage ride!"

"Well, he was right. One day he told me that he'd take me for a carriage ride if I wanted, but I knew I didn't want to go without you. So I told him to save it and that I'd use it one day. Today was the day."

She smiled and leaned her head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and they watched the streets of New York go by.

"Where are we going?" she asked, looking up at him.

"You'll see," he said.

She crinkled her eyes, studying his face.

"Don't worry, it won't be too much money."

"Let's not talk about money tonight," she said. "This is our fun night out, so let's temporarily forget about those things."

He smiled and kissed the top of her head.

After a few minutes of enjoying each other's company contently, the carriage pulled to a stop.

Topanga sat up and looked around. They were in the middle of downtown.

"Where are we going?" she asked again.

"Be patient!" he teased her. He stepped out of the carriage and held his hand out to help her down.

Then he walked over to George. "Alright, George," Cory said. "We'll probably be an hour or so."

He nodded. "Have fun," he said before driving off.

Topanga looked around for restaurants she recognized, but she didn't see any.

He held his arm out again. "M'lady," he said, with the accent again.

She smiled and took his arm. "Thank you, good sir!"

They started walking down the street and then Cory led her inside the door of a place called, "Hammy's."

There was upbeat music coming from the speakers in the ceiling and it was decorated like an old diner. There were old diner booths and a bar to sit at. There was a picture of a famous "Hammy Burger" on the wall.

"Cory," she said excitedly. "This is exactly like Chubbie's!"

He nodded and smiled. "Do you like it?"

"I love it!" She was grinning and looking around. "Except we're _extremely_ overdressed," she said with a chuckle.

"It's okay. We're in a fancy restaurant, remember?" He winked at her.

She grinned and took his hand, leading them to a table. They sat down and she pulled the menus out of the centerpiece.

"What are you going to get?" she asked.

He looked the menu up and down. "Wanna split a Chubbie burger?"

She grinned again and nodded. "That sounds great. Oh, Cory, this is so perfect! I feel like a teenager again! How did you find this place?"

"I just asked George if there were any good homey burger places. He recommended this and I came to check it out one day, and it reminded me so much of Chubbie's. I thought you'd like it."

"I love it!"

The waiter came up to their table at that point and said, "How are you guys doin' today?"

"We're good- how are you?" Cory asked.

"I'm great. Did you guys come from a wedding or something?" he asked, looking at their outfits.

They both laughed. "No," Topanga said. "We just wanted to dress up and have a night out."

The waiter smiled. "That's cool. What can I get you guys?"

"Can we share a, uh, Hammy burger?" Cory asked, feeling awkward not calling it a Chubbie burger. "And a large root beer with two straws please?"

"Yeah, sure. The works okay on the burger?" the waiter asked, writing the order down.

"No onions please. She doesn't like onions," Cory said. She grinned in response.

"Perfect. Coming right up for you guys," the waiter said before walking away.

After he left, Topanga said, "I love that you remember that I don't like onions."

"Of course I remember. I remember all the stuff you like and don't like," Cory said.

She nodded and then mischievously said, "What's my favorite fish?"

He rolled his eyes. "Tuna fish," he said with a grin. "You're left-handed!"

She rolled her eyes back.

"Salmon," he said.

"Very good," she replied.

"You're right-handed," he said.

"Well, I'm glad you learned at least those things from us living together."

"Oh, no, honey, I learned those things long ago and you never let me forget them," Cory said, remembering the Fiancé Game.

"Remember when we lived together for those few days at Pennbrook?" Topanga asked.

"Yeah. I thought you were scary," he laughed.

"I thought you were crazy," she said, shaking her head and laughing. "And those silk pajamas? What ever happened to those anyway?"

"Well, they were bloodstained, so I got rid of them."

"Cory! They cost a ton of money if I remember, and they were red! You wouldn't even see a blood stain!" she said.

"Would _you_ want to wear pajamas with blood on them?" he asked seriously.

She rolled her eyes again. "You know, you make me roll my eyes a lot," she said.

"Yeah, you make me argue a lot."

"They always said we bring out the best in each other," Topanga said, shaking her head playfully.

"Don't we, Mrs. Matthews?" he asked, smiling and leaning toward her.

"I would say we do, Mr. Matthews," she replied with a grin, leaning toward him.

Finally they leaned close enough over the table to meet each other with a kiss.

"This was a good idea, Cory," she said, leaning back.

"It was, wasn't it?" he asked, grinning.

"This is already so much fun. You were right. We do need to get out of the house sometimes."

He nodded.

Just then, the waiter appeared with their order.

"A large root beer- two straws," he said, pulling straws out of his apron pocket. "And a Hammy burger. Enjoy."

"Thank you," Topanga said.

They both looked at the burger in anticipation and Cory took his knife from his utensil set to cut it in half. Then they each took a half.

"Ready?" Cory asked.

She nodded.

"Go!" he said.

They both took a bite and were pleasantly surprised at how good the burger was.

"Wow, this is good!" Topanga said.

"Yeah, it is. It doesn't taste like a Chubbie burger, but it's good."

She nodded.

Cory took the straws out of their wrappers and put them in the root beer in the middle of the table. He tried it first and said, "This is good too!"

She took a sip from her straw and said, "Wow! I really like this place!"

They both just continued to eat their food, enjoying the taste of a good burger again. They didn't know the next time they would eat out.

When they were finally exiting the restaurant, they saw the carriage down the street. They walked to it and Cory said, "Hey, George. Ready?"

"Ready when you are," George replied.

Cory helped Topanga back into the carriage and climbed in.

"Now to the park?" Topanga asked.

"Well, we've got one more stop," Cory said.

"Where else are we going?" she asked.

"George knows," he said. "Alright, George!"

The carriage took off and Topanga wrapped her arms around Cory again. This trip was only a few minutes long before the carriage stopped again. Topanga started to sit up but Cory stopped her.

"You'll have to wait here," he said.

"Why?"

"Cause you can't see this part. But don't worry, it'll be fine. I'll be back in a few seconds."

She nodded. She leaned forward and kissed him before sitting back against the seat. He climbed out of the carriage and walked down the street.

"He sure is workin' hard to make this a good night for ya', Mrs. Matthews," she heard.

She stood up to see George looking back at her.

"I know," she said with a smile. "I'm lucky to have him."

"Well, he says _he's_ lucky to have _you_. He's always talkin' 'bout ya', Mrs. Matthews."

This made her smile bigger.

"Well, he says you're beautiful, which ya' are. He says you're real' smart and kind and only worry 'bout the inside of a person rather than the outside. I told him he had a real good woman, and he said he knows he does."

"Thank you for saying that, Mr. Tomlinson," she said, smiling.

"You two outta be the happiest couple there is, 'cause you're both that way."

"We are very happy, thank you."

"Glad to hear it, Mrs. Matthews."

"And I wanted to thank you again for letting Cory use your services for free. I know these carriage rides usually cost a lot, and we're very grateful to you for letting us ride for free. Thank you," she said meaningfully.

"'Course," he said. "I always do for friends. And Cory's one of the best there is. He's always so kind and treats everyone real nice."

Just then, Topanga heard someone stepping on the carriage. She looked to see Cory climbing up again.

"Where did you go?" she asked.

"Just had to get something," Cory replied.

"Well, that's vague."

"Well, it has to be vague. Sorry. You'll see soon," he said, sitting down and putting his arm around her.

She leaned her head on his chest and sighed. "I don't like not knowing things."

He chuckled. "I know."

xxxXXXxxx

It was around sunset when the carriage pulled up to the park. It wasn't the normal place people went into Central Park, but it was by a small playground.

"This is where you wanted to go?" she asked him.

He smiled and nodded. "Yep. This is perfect."

"Okay," Topanga said, shaking her head.

They got out of the carriage and he took her hand. They began walking toward the playground, and then Topanga saw where they were going. There was a big jungle gym at the end of the park, facing out toward an open field.

She turned to look at him. "We're going to go sit on a jungle gym?"

He nodded. "Yeah. You up for it?"

She smiled. "Yeah."

As they were walking, Topanga looked down at her heels. She thought for a moment and then stopped and took her heels off. He turned back to see what she was doing and she ran past him, laughing, her heels in her hand.

He smiled and took off after her, chasing her to the jungle gym. She was almost there when Cory caught up with her and wrapped his arms around her waist, stopping her.

"Aw! I was almost there!" she laughed.

"I caught you," he said with a grin. She turned to look at him and he leaned down to kiss her.

All of a sudden, she started giggling as she kissed him.

"What?" he asked, amused.

"Nothing," she said, a smile still on her face. She looked at him adoringly and ran her fingers through his hair.

"Why were you laughing?" he asked, starting to laugh himself.

She shook her head. "I don't know. Nothing was funny."

A confused look came to his face.

"I guess it's just because I feel really happy," she said with a smile.

He smiled back and kissed her forehead. "Me too."

They released their embrace and Cory started climbing the jungle gym. Topanga followed after him and they sat together.

"I probably shouldn't be sitting on this thing in a dress," Topanga said laughing.

He shrugged. "There's no one else around here anyway."

She looked around. He was right. There were a few little kids playing across the field and a few people walking on the sidewalks, but it was fairly quiet. The sun was setting off in the distance and Cory and Topanga looked at all the beautiful colors in the sky.

"It's so pretty," she said, looking around with a smile.

He nodded. "Yeah, it is." He watched his wife see all the scenery of the park, and he smiled. While she was looking at the beauty around her, he was simply looking at her, admiring her beauty and how she looked so happy. The sun was almost completely gone and the moon shone above them, glistening on her skin. Her hair was gently tossed in the wind, just out of her face.

He noticed that she crossed her arms and felt that the air was a little cold. He slipped off his jacket and wrapped it around her. She looked up at him and smiled.

"Thank you, honey," she said.

He smiled and put his arm around her.

"Do you remember sitting up on the jungle gym with me?" he asked.

"How could I forget _that_?" she asked him.

"Well, the first time, you got down and then helped me down," he said with an amused smile.

She chuckled. "Yeah," she said, fondly remembering.

"And then later, when we got back together."

She nodded. "I think that's the first time I seriously thought about getting married," she laughed.

"And now here we are. It's only been three years since then. It feels like it's been longer than that. We've come so far from where we were."

"Yeah, we have," she agreed.

"I hope we'll still be sitting here together when we're 80."

She smiled at him. "We will. And then I'll have to help you down again," she said, laughing.

"Good," he laughed. "I got you something," he said. He reached around her and into his inside jacket pocket.

"What did you get me?" she asked, intrigued, watching him.

He pulled out a small jewelry box.

"Well, I saw it the other day and wanted to get it for you, and then after we decided to have this date night, I thought I'd get it."

He opened the box and pulled out a necklace with a small infinity sign.

"Cory," she said, quietly. "I know we said we weren't going to talk about money, but, sweetie, that looks expensive."

"No, it's okay. I saw it in the window of a little shop. It wasn't too much."

She reached out to touch it. "Cory, this is real jewelry."

He nodded. "I know. I wanted it to be real. I thought this kind of represented us. Because these two circles are always connected and no matter which way you go, they always find their way back to each other. It means forever, for eternity."

He turned the necklace over to reveal an inscription.

"It says, 'You and me,' on the back. It was you and me on the jungle gym when we were two years old, and when we were 18 years old, and now. And I always want it to be you and me, Topanga," he said softly.

She felt tears in her eyes for the second time that night, but this time she couldn't stop them.

She nodded at him. "It always will be. You and me," she whispered.

He looked down and unclasped the necklace. He put his arms around his wife and clasped the necklace around her. He sniffled, and she could tell that he was fighting against letting tears escape, in true Cory fashion.

She picked the necklace up and looked at it, and then looked up at him.

"I love you, Topanga," he said quietly.

"I love you, too, Cory. Thank you."

They shared a beautiful, soft kiss and then Topanga leaned her head on his shoulder.

"I'll wear this forever," she said.

That made him smile. "Good."

It was quiet for a minute, but then he said, "I know we don't make enough money to go to a fancy dinner. But I think this is better than a fancy dinner. I'd rather come here with you, dressed up in our fancy clothes, and eat at a New York Chubbie's. I'm glad we're not those rich people who go out to dinner all the time but don't love each other. I'm glad we can't afford that."

She looked up at him and smiled. "Me too. I'd rather earn this than earn lots of money. Thank you for this amazing night, Cory."

He just smiled at her and kissed her forehead. She leaned back on his chest and they looked up at the stars above them.

 **I LOVE THEM SO MUCH AHHHH! Please let me know what you think! Leave a review! Thank you so much for reading this!**

 **Stay awesome!**


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